Public participation in policymaking: exploring and understanding impact

Methods / Approach

This was a qualitative study with three stages of data collection and analysis. The first stage consisted of a thematic literature review. Taking the report of the IPDD working group as a starting point, keys references were reviewed for detail on the impact of public participation processes. In addition, the websites of key organisations and thinktanks who regularly publish guidance, papers and toolkits related to public participation were reviewed and searched. A 'snowballing' approach was taken, i.e., using the reference list of relevant papers to identify additional sources, to ensure as much of the literature was reviewed as possible. Articles and papers were deemed relevant if they reviewed, analysed or discussed the impact of public participation processes. It is important to note that this was a short-term research project and, as noted, the literature on public participation is vast, cutting across a variety of disciplines. It was not possible for this study to capture all of the many ways that impact is conceptualised, however, it hopefully provides a helpful snapshot of contemporary thinking.

The second stage of the study involved engagement with expert stakeholders to explore, in more detail, how impact is thought about and understood. The aim was to gather a range of different perspectives and experiences. To this end, recruitment focused on people

who had participated in, convened, advised or supported participation processes both within and outwith Scottish Government. A total of 16, semi-structured, interviews were conducted, detailed in Table 1 below. Interviews all took place online on MS Teams and were then transcribed by the researcher. A thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2021) was used to pull out and identify the key themes across the different perspectives.

The third stage of the study turned attention to the different ways that impact might be evaluated, assessed and understood. Through the thematic literature review, potential frameworks and tools were identified for consideration and usage by Scottish Government. A workshop was then convened with a group of civil society representatives and civil servants who regularly convene and support public participation processes. In this workshop, the group (N=5) reviewed a suggested framework (detailed in Appendix A) and considered how it might be applied and / or adapted in different public participation settings.

The following sections detail the literature reviewed, key findings and themes from the stakeholder engagement as well as some suggested recommendations and next steps for Scottish Government.